Congratulations to SGT Kristoffer Friend and CPT Kirk Freeman on their win at the 2014 National Hearst Doubles 2 Man Team Match.

The Hearst Doubles Rifle Team Match is a two-person team match where both team members fire the 30-shot President’s Rifle course of fire (a modified National Match Course) with service rifles. The match winners receive the William Randolph Hearst Trophy, donated by William Randolph Hearst to the National Matches in 1940. The Hearst Rifle Trophy is a 17th century Spanish flintlock carbine in blunderbuss style, inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl and having a chased lock.

Friend and Freeman fired scores of 294-13x and 293-8x, respectively, to narrowly beat out their fellow competitors with a team score of 587-21x

The Civilian Marksmanship Program Vintage Sniper Rifle Team Match is a two-person team match fired at 300 and 600 yards on SR-3 and MR-1 targets respectively with 10 rounds per person per distance in the prone position using military sniper rifles issued prior to 1953 or replicas of those rifles. For each record shot, the target is exposed for twenty seconds while the shooter engages and the spotter observes and calls wind. The competition target has scoring rings much smaller than hit-or-miss targets typically used in sniper training even today, increasing the challenge in precision shooting, especially with vintage equipment.

US Army Reserve Marksmanship Program members Sgt. First Class Dwayne Lewis and Staff Sgt. John Arcularius, both with extensive sniping and long range precision shooting experience, competed in the event wearing complete camouflage, including ghillie suits and face paint as a demonstration and to represent the Army Reserve at this national event.

DARIEN, Ill. – The Army Reserve will host its first ever Small Arms Championship at Camp Robinson, Arkansas, from September 21-26.

The championship is open to all Army Reserve Soldiers and will consist of 11 matches covering pistol, small rifle and light machine gun marksmanship.

The event is designed to promote marksmanship skills across the Reserve force and award the top shooters who come to compete. Combat matches empower Soldiers to concentrate solely on marksmanship training under competitive conditions.

Soldiers will fire the M16 and M4 rifles at distances from 25 yards to 500 yards using iron sights. They will fire the M9 pistols at distances from 10 to 35 yards. They will finish the competition with firing the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon and the M240B Light Machine Gun.

Some of the competition events will require running and physical endurance.

A maximum of 160 Soldiers will be allowed to compete, forming teams of four firing members each.

The competition is hosted and organized by the Army Reserve Marksmanship Program (ARMP), which consists of marksmen who have earned medals in nation-wide and international competitions, with two Soldiers eligible to compete in the 2016 Olympics.

ARMP represents the forefront of small arms skills in the Reserve. The program is officially approved to provide subject matter experts on the weapons all Soldier use.

The Mayleigh Challenge is an annual international .22 caliber pistol competition with American competitors selected at the National Matches based on their .22 Pistol Match scores. Competition is open to English speaking countries by invitation from the National Rifle Association of America. Participating countries include Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Jamaica, Rhodesia, South Africa, and the United States.

This year USAR Service Pistol Team members SPC Nick Mowrer and MSG Rob Mango were selected to compete in this event.
SPC Nick Mowrer and MSG Rob Mango

SFC Keith Sanderson also was selected for the Mayleigh Challenge but was not available for photos.

The NRA National Pistol Championships always featured team matches, however, these events have typically been four person events will all competitors shooting the same type of handgun. The 3-Member Preliminary Team Event is different because all three members fire a different pistol, side by side, at the same time. As one team member shoots .22 caliber, another shoots center fire, and the last shoots .45.

RA National Pistol Manager Tom Hughes said it was created because, “the competitions division wanted to turn it up a notch. So before, there was a .22 Team Championship, Center Fire Team Championship and .45 Team Championship; this time we put them all together.”